Personality Development By Swami Vivekananda 6cc60

What is personality? “Your personality is the type of person you are, which is shown by the way you behave, feel and think”. How a person behaves, feels and thinks, how he conducts himself in a given set of circumstances is largely determined by the state of his mind. Mere external appearance or a person’s speech or mannerisms are only fringes of one’s personality. They do not reflect the real personality. Personality development in the real sense refers to deeper levels of a person. Necessity to know our mind: We intend to do many things – make resolutions to cultivate good habits, to kick certain bad habits, to study with concentration, to do something with a concentrated mind. Very often our mind rebels, forcing us to beat a retreat from our efforts at implementing our resolutions. A book is open before us, and our eyes are open. But the mind has started wandering, thinking about some past events or some future plans. The same thing happens when we sit for a few minutes trying to pray or think of a divine name or form. Says swami Vivekananda: “Free! We who cannot for a moment govern our own minds, nay, cannot hold our minds on a subject, focus it on a point to the exclusion of everything else for a moment! Yet we call ourselves free. Think of it!

According to the Bhagavad Gita, the undisciplined mind acts as our enemy, whereas a trained mind acts as our friend. So we need to have a clear idea of the mechanism of our mind. Can we train it to obey us, to cooperate with us? How can it contribute to the development of our personality? The fourfold functions of the mind: Memory: The storehouse of memory and impressions of our past experiences presents various possibilities before the mind. This storehouse called chitta. It is in this storehouse that the impressions of our thoughts and actions – good and bad – are stored. The sum total of these impressions determine our character. This chitta, again, is what is known as our subconscious mind. Deliberation and conceptualization: Not yet, sure, the mind examines the many options presented before it. It deliberates on several things. This faculty of the mind is called manas. Imagination and formation of concepts are also functions of the manas. Determination and Decision-making: Buddhi is the faculty responsible for decision-making. It has the capacity to judge the pros and cons of things and find what is more desirable. It is also the discriminative faculty in a person, which enables him to discriminate between the real and the unreal, between what is to be done and what is to be avoided, what is morally right and what is wrong. It is also the seat of will-power so essential for personality development and hence this aspect of the mind concerns us the most.

“I” consciousness: Appropriating to oneself all physical and mental activity eg, ‘ I eat’, ‘I see’, ‘I talk’, ‘I hear’, ‘I am confused’, etc, is called ahamkara or ‘I’ consciousness. As long as the ‘I’ identifies itself with the undisciplined body-mind complex, human life is dictated by events and circumstances of the world; we become happy with pleasurable events and miserable with adverse circumstances. More the mind gets refined and disciplined, more does one get to know the real source of ‘I’ consciousness. Correspondingly, a person becomes more balanced and equipoised in his daily life. Such a person is no longer swayed by any event or circumstances of life. More about the mind: ‘Our’, ‘I’ is represented by the master of the chariot; the body is the chariot and the buddhi the charioteer. The manas is sense organs-ears, skin, eyes, tongue and nose-which are the five windows in human being that give him or her the knowledge of the objects in the world. Important activity of the mind that concerns personality development is our emotions. More the emotions are under control, healthier becomes one’s personality. Emotions can be broadly classified into two types. Viz attraction and repulsion. Love, iration, aspiration, sympathy, joy, veneration, pride and the like indicate attraction. Hate, anger, fear, sorrow, jealousy, disgust, shame, etc., are the nature of repulsion. As long as one is entangled with the

undisciplined mind, one’s personality does not really develop. Buddhi, the charioteer, serves as an effective instrument of self-development by controlling the emotions and raising the higher self from the hold of the lower mind. What is character? Personality development by Swami Vivekananda

What is character? Every action and thought of ours leaves an impression in our mind. These impressions determine how we behave at a given moment, how we respond to a given situation. The sum total of all our impressions is what determines our character. The past has determined the present. Even so the present our present thoughts and actions - will shape our future. This is the key principle governing personality development. What activates the body-mind system? This question will help us to have better knowledge of ourselves. This question engaged the attention of ancient Indian seers and sages. They experimented with themselves - their sensory and mental apparatus – and

after a disciplined quest they found out that there is a divine element in human beings, which is the mind of the mind, eyes of the eyes, ears of the ears and speech of the speech. It is this divinity which constitutes the real ‘I’ and the eternal element in our personality. This divinity survives physical dissolution of the body. This divinity remains latent in us as long as we identify ourselves with our body-mind and the sensory systems. The goal of life, according to the scriptures and the great ones, is to manifest this hidden divinity. What was the central message of swami Vivekananda? “My ideal indeed can be put into a few words and that is: to preach unto mankind their divinity, and how to make it manifest in every movement of life”. “Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity within by controlling nature, external and internal”. “A nation may conquer the waves, control the elements, develop the utilitarian problems of life seemingly to the utmost limits, and yet not realize that in the individual, the highest type of civilization is found in him who has learned to conquer self”.

“This universe is simply a gymnasium in which the soul is taking exercise; and after these exercise we become gods. So the value of everything is to be decided by how far it is a manifestation of God. Civilization is the manifestation of that divinity in man”. This divinity in us is the repository of eternal existence, eternal knowledge and eternal bliss. The more it manifests, the more we experience abiding happiness and get supreme knowledge. Strengthening of will-power, the essence of personality development: Physical dimension consisting of our body and senses. Energy dimension which performs digestion of food, circulation of blood, respiration and other activities in the body. Mental dimension characterized by the activities of the mind, like thinking, feeling and emotions, etc. Intellectual dimension characterized by determinative faculty in a person. This is also the seat of decrimination and will power.

Blissful dimension experienced as bliss during deep sleep. Development involves struggle with one’s lower mind characterized by desires, old habits, wrong tendencies, impulses and bad impressions. The lesser we identify with the lower mind, and the more we identify with the higher mind, and exercise our buddhi (discrimination), the more developed will our personality be. This involves struggle to grapple with one’s mind and its old habits, to cultivate new and wholesome ones. But this struggle is the greatest of all struggles in that it makes us civilized in the real sense of the term by manifesting our divinity and thereby our hidden perfection. Some essential qualities for personality development: Faith in oneself: Faith in god came next only to faith in oneself. If one believes that ones real nature is the spirit-not the body or the mind- one would be a better individual with strong character. Think positive thoughts: positive, wholesome thoughts based on our inherent divinity are essential for a strong character. ‘Go on doing good, thinking holy thoughts continuously, that is the only way to suppress base impressions…. Character is repeated habits and repeated habits alone can reform

character.’ Further, according to Swamiji, the only sin is to think of oneself and others as weak. Attitude towards failures and Mistakes: Swamiji advocated ing the ideal once again even if a person failed a thousand times. He appreciated committing mistakes and learning from them rather than leading an inert existence like a wall, which cannot even tell a lie. Self-reliance: Man is the maker of his own destiny. ‘We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves.’ Renunciation and service: Swamiji held selfless service as a paramount means to character development. This, coupled with renunciation of selfishness and desire for the fruits of action, was considered by Swamiji as the twin ideal of our nation. ‘Intensify her in those channels, and the rest will take care of itself.’ -

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‘Teach yourselves, teach every one his real nature, call upon the sleeping soul and see how it awakes. Power will come, glory will come, goodness will

come, purity will come, and everything that is excellent will come when this sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity.’- Swamiji It is personality that matters Personality development by Swami Vivekananda

It is personality that matters

What we want is to see the man who is harmoniously developed…great in heart, great in mind, [great in deed] … we want the man whose heart feels intensely the miseries and sorrows of the world…. And [we want] the man who not only can feel but can find the meaning of things, who delves deeply into the heart of nature and understanding. [We want] the man who will not even stop there,[but]who wants to work out [the feeling and meaning by actual deeds]. Such a combination of head, heart, and hand is what we want.

See what is happening around us. The world is one of influence. Part of our energy is used up in the preservation of our own bodies. Beyond that, every particle of our energy is day and night being used in influencing other. Our

bodies, our virtues, our intellect, and our spirituality, all these are continuously influencing others; and so conversely, we are being influenced by them. This is going on all around us. Now to take a concrete example. A man comes; you know he is very learned, his language is beautiful, and he speaks to you by the hour; but he does not make any impression. Another man comes, and he speaks a few words, not well arranged, ungrammatical perhaps; all the same, he makes an impression. Many of you seen that. So it is evident that words alone cannot always produce an impression. Words, even thoughts, contribute only one-third of the influence in making an impression, the man, two-thirds. What you call the personal magnetism of the man-that is what goes out and impresses you.

In our families there are the heads; some of them are successful, others are not. Why? We complain of others in our failures. The moment I am unsuccessful, I say, so-and-so is the cause of the failure. In failure, one does not like to confess one’s own faults and weaknesses. Each person tries to hold himself faultless and lay the blame upon somebody or something else, or even on bad luck. When heads of families fail, they should ask themselves, why it is that some persons manage a family so well and others do not. They you will find that the difference is owing to the man-his presence, his personality.

The personality of a man is two-thirds, and his intellect, his words, are but one-third. It is the real man, the personality of the man, that runs through us. Our actions are but effects. Actions must come when the man is there; the effect is bound to follow the cause. The ideal of all education, all training, should be this man-making. But, instead of that, we are always trying to polish up the outside. What use in polishing up the outside when there is no inside? The end and aim of all training is to make the man grow,. The man who influences, who throws his magic, as it were, upon his fellow-beings, is a dynamo of power, and when that man is ready, he can do anything and everything he likes; that personality put upon anything will make it work. Laws of personality development

Personality development by Swamy Vivekananda Laws of personality development The science of yoga claims that it has discovered the laws which develop this personality, and by proper attention to those laws and methods, each one can grow and strengthen his personality. This is one of the great practical things, and this is the secret of all education. This has a universal

application. In the life of a householder, in the life of poor, the rich, the man of business, the spiritual man, in every one’s life, it is a great thing, the strengthening of this personality. There are laws, very fine. Which are behind the physical laws, as we know. That is to say, there are no such realities as a physical world, a mental world, a spiritual world. Whatever is, is one. Let us say, it is a sort of tapering existence; the thickest part is here, it tapers and becomes finer and finer. The finest is what we call spirit; the grossest, the body. And just as it is here in microcosm, it is exactly the same in macrocosm. The universe of ours is exactly like that; it is the gross external thickness, and it tapers into something finer and finer until it becomes God.

We also know that the greatest power is lodged in the fine, not the coarse. We see a man take up a huge weight, we see his muscles swell,. And all over his body we see signs of exertion, and we think the muscles are powerful things. But it is the thin thread like things, the nerves, which bring power to the muscles; the moment one of these threads is cut off from reaching the muscles, they are not able to work at all. These tiny nerves bring the power from something still finer, and that again in its turn brings it from something finer still - thought, and so on. So it is the fine that is really the seat of power.

Of course, we can the movements in the gross; but when fine movements take place, we cannot see them. When a gross thing moves, we catch it, and thus, we naturally identify movement with things which are gross. But all the power is really in the fine. We do not see any movement in the fine, perhaps, bcoz the movement is so intense that we cannot perceive it. But if by any science, any investigation, we are helped to get hold of these finer forces which are the cause of the ex-pression, the ex-pression itself will be under control. There is a little bubble coming from bottom of a lake; we don not see it coming all the time, we see it only when it bursts on the surface; so, we can perceive thoughts only after they develop a great deal, or after they become actions. We constantly complain that we have no control over our actions, over our thoughts. But how can we have it? If we can get control over the fine moments, If we can get hold of thought at the root, before it has become thought, before if become action, then it would be possible for us to control the whole. If there is a method by which we can analyse, investigate, understand, and finally grapple with those finer powers, the finer causes, then alone is it possible to have control over ourselves, and the man who has control over his own mind assuredly will have control over every other mind. That is why purity and morality have been always the object of religion; a pure, moral man has control of himself. And all kinds are the same, different parts of one mind. He who knows one lump of clay has known all the clay in the universe. He who knows and controls his own mind knows the secret of every mind and has power over every mind.

A good deal of our physical evil we can get rid of, if we have control over the fine parts; a good many worries we can throw off, if we have control over the fine movements; a good many failures can be averted, if we have control over these fine powers. Different layers of personality Personality development by Swamy Vivekananda Different layers of personality This GROSS PART OF THE MAN, this body, in which are the external instruments, is called in Sanskrit, Sthula Sharira, the gross body; behind it comes the series, beginning with the organs, the mind, the intellect, the egoism. These and the viral forces form a compound which is called the fine body, the Sukshma Sharira. These forces are composed of very fine elements, so fine that no amount of injury to this can destroy them; they survive all the shocks given to this body. The gross body we see is composed of gross material, and as such it is always being renewed and changing continuously. But the internal organs, the mind, the intellect, and the egoism are composed of the finest material, so fine that they will endure for aeons and aeons. They are so fine that they cannot be resisted by anything; they can get through any obstruction.

The gross body is non-intelligent, so is the fine, being composed fine matter. Although one part is called the mind, another the intellect, and third the egoism, yet we see at a glance that no one of them can be “knower”. None of them can be the perceiver, the witness, the one for whom action is made, and who is the seer of the action. All these movements in the mind, or the faculty of intellection, or egoism, must be for some one else. These being composed of fine matter cannot be self-effulgent. Their luminosity cannot be themselves. This manifestation of the table, for instance, cannot be due to any material thing. Therefore there must be some one behind them all, who is the real manifester, the real seer, the real enjoyer and He in Sanskrit is called the Atman, the Soul of man, the real Self of man. The body is dying every minute. The mind is constantly changing. The body is a combination, and so is the mind, and as such can never reach to a state beyond all change. But beyond this momentary sheathing of gross matter, beyond even finer covering of the mind is the Atman, the true Self of man, the permanent, the ever free. It is his freedom that is percolating through layers of thought and matter, and, in spite of the colourings of name and form, is ever asserting its unshackled existence. It is his deathlessness, his bliss, his peace, his divinity that shines out and makes itself felt in spite of the thickest layers of ignorance. He is the real man, the fearless one, the deathless one, the free. Now freedom is possible when no external power can exert any influence, produce any change. Freedom is only possible to the being who is beyond all

conditions, all laws, all bondages of cause and effect. In other words, the unchangeable alone can be free and, therefore, immortal. This Being, this Atman, this real Self of man, the free, the unchangeable is beyond all conditions, and as such, it has neither birth nor death. Every human personality may be compared to a glass globe. There is the same pure white light – an emission of the divine Being – in the centre of each, but the glass being of different colours and thickness, the rays assume diverse aspects in the transmission. The equality and beauty of each central flame is the same, and the apparent inequality is only in the imperfection of the temporal instrument of its ex-pression. As we rise higher and higher in the scale of being, the medium becomes more and more translucent. Man is Divine Personality Development by Vivekananda Man is Divine Children of IMMORTAL BLISS – what a sweet, what a hopeful name! The children of God, sharers of immortal bliss, holy and perfect beings. Ye Divinities on earth – sinners! It is a sin to call a man so; it is a standing libel on human nature. O lions, Shake of the delusion that you are sheep;

you are souls immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal; ye are not matter, ye are not bodies; matter is your servant, not you the servant to matters. Even this world, this body and mind are superstitions; what infinite souls you are! And to be tricked by twinkling stars! It is a shameful condition. You are divinities; the twinkling stars owe their existence to you. Everything that is strong, and good, and powerful in human nature is the outcome of that divinity, and though potential in many, there is no difference between man and man essentially, all being alike divine. There is, as it were, an infinite ocean behind, and you and I are so many waves, coming out of that infinite ocean; and each one of us is trying his best to manifest that infinite outside. So, potentially, each one of us has that infinite ocean of Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss as our birthright, our real nature; and the difference between us is caused by the greater or lesser power to manifest that divine. This infinite power of the spirit, brought to bear upon matter evolves material development, made to act upon thought evolves intellectuality; and made to act upon itself makes of man a God. Manifest the divinity within you, and everything will be harmoniously arranged around it.

Pleasure Is Not the Goal

Personality development by Swami Vivekananda Pleasure Is Not the Goal Pleasure is not the goal of man, but knowledge. Pleasure and happiness comes to an end. It is a mistake to suppose that pleasure is the goal. The cause of all the miseries we have in the world is that men foolishly think pleasure to be the ideal to strive for. After a time man finds that it is not happiness, but knowledge, towards which he is going, and that both pleasure and pain are great teachers, and that he learns as much from evil as from good. Good and Evil have an equal share in moulding character, and in some instances misery is a greater teacher than happiness. In studying the great characters the world has produced, I dare say, in the vast majority of cases, it would be found that it was misery that taught more than happiness, it was poverty that taught more than wealth, it was blows that brought out their inner fire more than praise.

Sense-happiness is not the goal of humanity. Wisdom (Jnana) is the goal of all life. We find that man enjoys his intellect more than an animal enjoys its senses; and we see that man enjoys his spiritual nature even more than this rational nature. So the highest wisdom must be this spiritual knowledge. With this knowledge will come Bliss. All these things of this world are but the shadows, the manifestations in the third or fourth degree of the real knowledge and Bliss. Only the fools rush after sense-enjoyments. It is easy to live in the senses. It is easier to run in the old groove, eating and drinking; but what these modern philosophers want to tell you is to take these comfortable ideas and put the stamp of religion on them. Such a doctrine is dangerous. Death lies in the senses. Life on the plane of the spirit is the only life, life on any other plane is mere death; the whole of this life can be only described as a gymnasium. We must go beyond it to enjoy real life.